Good Time, Bureau of Prisons Style
The Supreme Court issued its opinion in Barber v. Thomas on Monday, upholding the manner in which the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) calculates “good time credits” under 18 U.S.C. […]
Expert Testimony Regarding Impairment
Rule 702(a1) was enacted in 2006 (effective for hearings held August 21, 2006 or later) to render admissible two types of expert testimony on the issue of impairment: (1) testimony […]
The Second Look Doctrine, Part II
Last week, I posted about the second look doctrine. (You can read that post here.) Recall that the basic idea is that if the police have custody of an object […]
The CSI Effect
I may be the only person in America who has never seen an episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. Nonetheless, I am interested in the so-called CSI effect. As The […]
News Roundup
Recent stories of interest include the following: 1. The News and Observer reports that the state House just passed its version of the budget. The last version that I saw […]
State v. Johnson and the Retroactivity of Gant
On June 1, 2010, the N.C. Court of Appeals applied Arizona v. Gant in State v. Johnson and held that the defendant’s Fourth Amendment rights were violated when the police […]
Berghuis v. Thompkins
Yesterday, the United States Supreme Court decided Berghuis v. Thompkins, an important Miranda case. (There are other issues in the case, too, but this post will focus on the Miranda […]
Ad Hoc Conditions of Probation
Under G.S. 15A-1343(b1)(10), a court may, in addition to the regular conditions of probation and any statutory special conditions, require a defendant to “[s]atisfy any other conditions determined by the […]
News Roundup
It’s Friday before a holiday weekend. What better time for a news roundup? 1. Two brothers prevented a 19-year-old jogger from being abducted in Chapel Hill recently. Their inspiring story […]
The “Second Look” Doctrine, Part I
Consider the following scenario. The police arrest Sam Suspect and charge him with murdering his wife, Vicky Victim. The arrest is based on a statement from Frank Friend, one of […]